A Brief History
Montana State University, Montana's first state-supported institution of higher learning, owes its existence to the Morrill Land Grant Act of 1862, which granted 6.3 million acres of federal lands to endow and support
at least one college in each state where the leading object shall be, without excluding other scientific or classical studies, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts...in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions of life.
In 1889, Montana became the Union's forty-first state under President Benjamin Harrison's signature. Montana's constitution authorized the legislature to appropriate funds for state institutions, and the locations of those state institutions were established during the second legislative session by the not-uncommon practice of dividing the state's largesse among different communities. The state capital was sited in Helena by voter election, and communities that failed to secure that plum began lobbying heavily for the remaining institutions. The reform school went to Miles City, the school for the deaf and dumb to Boulder, the school of mines to Butte, the state university to Missoula, the orphanage to Twin Bridges, the soldiers' home to Columbia Falls, the normal school to Dillon, the state prison to Deer Lodge, and the agricultural college to Bozeman.
The Agricultural College of the State of Montana was officially created on February 16, 1893, and the other three units of the university system were chartered the following day. On April 17 the school began instruction. Because buildings could not be erected on the chosen site in time to meet the federal deadline for receiving land-grant funds, the college had to secure space in a downtown roller-skating rink which had been recently converted to a private school, the Bozeman Academy. Eight students already attending the academy were enrolled for college courses. With students attending college classes, the state's receipt of land-grant funds was assured. The Agricultural College of the State of Montana was underway.
MSU's history professors have played an important role in documenting the institution's history. For further information, please see In The People's Interest by Robert Rydell, Jeffrey Safford, and Pierce Mullen (1992), and A History of Montana State University by Merrill Burlingame (1968).
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| © Copyright Montana State University Bozeman | Updated July 22, 1999 |